Former South African cricket boss jailed for 76 years

By Fakir Hassen Johannesburg, Aug 1 (IANS) The former financial manager of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA, now Cricket South Africa), Diteko Modise, has been sentenced to 76 years in jail after being found guilty of a multimillion rand fraud and money laundering. Magistrate Jeremy Janse van Vuuren referred to Modise as “a very greedy or materialistic person” as he ordered Thursday that Modise should serve a minimum of 20 years before being considered for parole, in order to set an example to those who considered engaging in this type of crime.

Modise was charged in February this year with nine counts of fraud, money laundering and theft after 7.4 million rands (approx $1 million) disappeared from the coffers of the UCBSA during the time that he was responsible for the cricket authority’s internal audit processes.

Unauthorised amounts ranging from 148,500 rands to 2.9 million rands were paid into various accounts, including Modise’s personal accounts, after he instructed UCBSA staff to do so. One of these was to a company in which Modise was the sole shareholder.

Modise’s actions were exposed after the UCBSA brought in auditors Deloitte to investigate allegations of mismanagement of UCBSA funds that was causing public concern.

Van Vuuren said Modise had carefully calculated the crimes to enrich himself despite the fact that he was earning an “excellent salary” which was way above that of the average South African.

Aggravating his situation was the fact that Modise had refused to acknowledge guilt at any stage.

“The court is of the opinion that there is a total lack of remorse and repentance on your part,” Van Vuuren said.

Although two small amounts were recovered from Modise, the UCBSA suffered a loss of 6.1 million rands from his actions.

Legal counsel for Modise indicated that they would file an application to appeal the judgement on Aug 12.